Computing devices, such as computers, typically have maximum power ratings. The maximum power rating of a computing device is the maximum amount of power that the computing device can consume at any given moment. For example, the maximum power rating may be the maximum power rating that a power supply of the computing device is able to provide to the computing device.
However, computing devices typically do not consume power equal to their maximum power ratings, except under extreme processing loads, if ever. That is, a typical computing device usually consumes much less power than its maximum power rating. For any given individual computing device, this is of no concern to the owner or user of the computing device.
However, designers and maintainers of data centers have to worry about whether the data centers can provide sufficient power to hundreds, if not thousands or more, of computing devices operating within a data center. Even if the computing devices within a data center will typically not consume power equal to their maximum power ratings, because at least in theory the possibility exists for the computing devices to consume power equal to their maximum power ratings. As such, a data center usually has to be designed so that it is capable of providing this large amount of power.
Therefore, data centers typically are designed to provide much more power than the computing devices thereof will typically ever consume. This excess power capacity results in a great cost being incurred by the owners or operators of the data centers. They have to build in power capacity on the assumption that all the computing devices will consume power equal to their maximum power ratings, at the same time, even though this situation may never actually occur. For this and other reasons, there is a need for the present invention.